The pool of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the Arctic is disproportionally large compared to those in other biomes. This large quantity of SOC accumulated over millennia due to slow rates of decomposition relative to net primary productivity. Decomposition is constrained by low temperatures and nutrient concentrations, which limit soil microbial activity. We investigated how nutrients limit bacte...

If microbial degradation of carbon substrates in arctic soil is stimulated by climatic warming, this would be a significant positive feedback on global change. With data from a climate change experiment in Northern Sweden we show that warming and enhanced soil nutrient availability, which is a predicted long-term consequence of climatic warming and mimicked by fertilization, both increase soil ...

Establishing vegetation on roadsides following construction can be challenging, especially for relatively slow growing native species. Topsoil is generally removed during construction, and the surface soil following construction ("cut-slope soils") is often compacted and low in nutrients, providing poor growing conditions for vegetation. Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) protocols ha...

Soil fertility in smallholder farming areas is known to vary strongly on multiple scales. This study measures the sensitivity of the recorded satellite signal to on-farm soil fertility treatments applied to five crop types, and quantifies this fertilization effect with respect to within-field variation, between-field variation and field position in the catena. Plant growth was assessed in 5–6 p...

The aim of this paper is to review the current knowledge on the uptake of mineral nutrients from foliar fertilization. Despite many studies carried out on mineral nutrient absorption by leaf tissues, many aspects of foliar fertilization are still unknown. At present, it is believed that such fertilization of plants is a valuable complement to the application of nutrients to the soil. Foliar fer...

1 Agricultural management plays an important role in global warming mitigation due to 2 its effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. In Mediterranean agroecosystems, 3 the interactive effects of tillage and N fertilization on SOC storage have scarcely been 4 studied. Hence, we here present a modelling study in which the effects of both tillage 5 and N fertilization on SOC dynamics are inv...

Deep root water uptake and hydraulic redistribution (HR) have been shown to play a major role in forest ecosystems during drought, but little is known about the impact of climate change, fertilization and soil characteristics on HR and its consequences on water and carbon fluxes. Using data from three mid-rotation loblolly pine plantations, and simulations with the process-based model MuSICA, t...

Disposal of poultry litter, a widely available organic manure in the southeastern USA because of a largescale poultry industry, is a major concern because of its contamination in surfaceand groundwater through N leaching and P runoff. Application of poultry litter in no-tilled intensive cropping system could increase soil C and N sequestration compared with the conventional-tilled system with i...

This research sought to link Andean soil knowledge and farmer categorization of soil fertility to soil science characterization of soils, and use these to understand the impacts of phosphorus (P) fertilization of legumes using rock phosphate and soluble P fertilizer in 17 smallholder-managed sites with varying soil properties. We found that farmer high/low categorization of soils corresponded t...

Methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in rice has great implications for human health. Here, effects of selenium (Se) on MeHg availability to rice are explored by growing rice under soil or foliar fertilization with Se. Results indicate that soil amendment with Se could reduce MeHg levels in soil and grain (maximally 73%). In contrast, foliar fertilization with Se enhanced plant Se levels (3-12 fol...